Whistleblower cop getting 'attacked and attacked'

For those who are not aware, Sgt Flori's "crime" in the eyes of the Queensland Police Service was to make public a video showing police officers bashing a man in the back of a police vehicle under the Surfers Paradise police station.

Sgt Rick Flori's "crime" was to make public a video showing police officers bashing a man in the back of a police vehicle under the Surfers Paradise police station. Photo: Network Ten

It doesn't just scream cover-up, but worse. It suggests that the QPS is using its power to deter any other police officers from ever disclosing criminal behaviour by their colleagues.

In my mind, that brings into question the integrity of the QPS. It most certainly jeopardises any confidence the public may have.

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Civil libertarian Terry O'Gorman told me yesterday he was preparing to make a submission on behalf of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties to the Crime and Corruption Commission, urging that the commission take over the handling of the case.

Mr O'Gorman is a man I respect, even if we sometimes disagree. In this case, he is absolutely correct.

"I believe this matter needs to be examined by an independent QC to determine if the prosecution of Sgt Flori should go ahead," Mr O'Gorman says.

"There is an apparent contradiction in that the video shows police officers bashing a man in a police station, but none of them has been charged. Yet it is Sgt Flori who has been charged with a crime."

How can this be so? Well it can't, or at least it shouldn't be so.

However the full power and might of the state has been unleashed on someone who should be protected as a whistleblower.

Irrespective of what a person is accused of having done, once they are in police custody they should be in the safest place in the country. That is not the case here. When police have to wash the blood away with a bucket of water, it's a very serious thing.

However, the officers involved in the bashing have never been prosecuted, while Sgt Flori could go to gaol for seven years.

The victim of this bashing, Mr Noa Begic, was originally arrested for nuisance and obstructing police.

The charges were dropped, however, on the intervention of the previous police commissioner, Bob Atkinson.

With two of the police involved merely undergoing administrative discipline, and not criminal charges, that leaves Sgt Flori as the only one to go to court.

It is absurd, and threatens to become Queensland's own version of the notorious Dreyfus affair.

Every day that passes with Sgt Flori being prosecuted and victimised - both before the courts and outside them - the matter becomes worse.

I have no hesitation in saying I accuse those who want to perpetuate a culture of cover up for pushing this prosecution, to the detriment of public confidence in the justice system, and the Police Service itself.